Hello all. This puzzle by Oink was not what I’d call swinish: I didn’t encounter any snags. We do have the expected piggy reference, though. Staying on the farm, I will chose 4d as my favourite clue for its smooth surface. Thanks Oink!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, most quoted indicators are in italics, specified [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
| Across | |
| 8a | European cause arousing strong feelings (7) |
| EMOTIVE — E (European) + MOTIVE (cause) | |
| 9a | Former performance spot on (5) |
| EXACT — EX (former) ACT (performance) | |
| 10a | Complain husband’s in the red? (5) |
| WHINE — H (husband)’s in WINE (the red?) | |
| 11a | Picture John Lennon singing this? (7) |
| IMAGINE — Double definition | |
| 12a | See mother playing in trio (9) |
| THREESOME — SEE MOTHER anagrammed (playing) | |
| 14a | Corner wild animal (3) |
| HOG — Two definitions – and Oink’s customary porcine reference | |
| 16a | Published article on Republican (3) |
| RAN — AN (article) by (on) R (Republican) | |
| 18a | Janitor who’s meticulous about his work? (9) |
| CARETAKER — Someone who’s meticulous about his work might be described as a CARE TAKER | |
| 21a | Pitched tent accommodating king leaving little room to move (7) |
| CRAMPED — CAMPED (pitched tent) containing (accommodating) R (king) | |
| 22a | Ultimately useless and ineffectual creep (5) |
| SIDLE — The last letter of (ultimately) uselesS + IDLE (ineffectual) | |
| 23a | Expensive car turns over (5) |
| ROLLS — Double definition | |
| 24a | System I rationalised, protecting someone from the UAE (7) |
| EMIRATI — SystEM I RATIonalised is hiding (protecting) the answer | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Swear tea is tainted — don’t drink it! (8) |
| SEAWATER — SWEAR TEA is anagrammed (tainted) | |
| 2d | Manager installing one item of office equipment (6) |
| COPIER — COPER (manager) taking in (installing) I (one) | |
| 3d | Mention place of interest, some would say (4) |
| CITE — Sounds like (… some would say) SITE (place of interest) | |
| 4d | Farmer in Oxfordshire keeps sheep (6) |
| MERINO — FarMER IN Oxfordshire contains (keeps) the answer | |
| 5d | Not disheartened after ten years, but in decline (8) |
| DECADENT — NoT without its middle letter (disheartened) goes after DECADE (ten years) | |
| 6d | French city hospital — priest’s responsibility? (6) |
| PARISH — PARIS (French city) + H (hospital) | |
| 7d | Some nasty exhausting bacterial infection (4) |
| STYE — Some naSTY Exhausting | |
| 13d | Fantasy epics Sam designed (8) |
| ESCAPISM — EPICS SAM anagrammed (designed) | |
| 15d | Flowering shrub with poor drainage (8) |
| GARDENIA — An anagram of (poor) DRAINAGE | |
| 17d | Nobleman dividing New York, just about (6) |
| NEARLY — EARL (nobleman) in (dividing) NY (New York) | |
| 19d | Become embarrassed in socialist haunt (6) |
| REDDEN — RED (socialist) DEN (haunt) | |
| 20d | Abduct child and doze off (6) |
| KIDNAP — KID (child) and NAP (doze off) | |
| 21d | Perhaps Jack and Charlie on road, entertaining American (4) |
| CARD — C (Charlie) on RD (road) taking in (entertaining) A (American) | |
| 22d | Stumble, knocking lager over (4) |
| SLIP — We are turning upside down (knocking … over) PILS (lager) | |
Nice friendly puzzle from Oink – maybe two references, with also STYE in there? LOI CARD, due to stupidity guessing tRApPED which held me up having to correct it to CRAMPED. Would never have known one from UAE was an EMIRATI but luckily it’s there on a plate. Thanks Oink and Kitty.
I made exactly the same mistake, TRAPPED for CRAMPED!
United Arab Emirates?
Oh yes of course Emirates, but last letter I for one person? – not obvious. And yet an Iraqi, an Israeli (what others?), so one might get there.
Yemeni, Omani, Qatari, Bahraini, Pakistani … guess where they’re from …
Pigsty no E?
Of course. But a reference need not necessarily be a literal one?
Straightforward for a gentle 15 min Monday start. For some reason setter name not shown on my Android phone today. Thanks Oink and Kitty.
I can never see the setters name on my Pixel 7a…
11 minutes and a few seconds, so at last I have solved a QC online within my target 15. It’s not that I am pushing myself to achieve a particular time, but I like to keep an eye on such things.
Like Martinu above, I might have struggled with EMIRATI had it not been spelled out in the clue.
Fairly straightforward but wasted time looking for a French city at 6d and briefly wondered how to fit something Clarkson related into 4d.
Started with EMOTIVE and finished with PARISH in 6.45.
Thanks to Kitty and Oink.
5:25, super fast, no problems
For once didn’t put the wrong CITE/SITE in the grid.
COD SEAWATER
Oh mistake Site for me
Needed checkers to get SEAWATER, and missed the hidden for EMIRATI at first look (trying an anagram of “system I”). Otherwise rapid to finish in 05:19 for an Excellent Day.
LOI CRAMPED, COD THREESOME. Very good fun, many thanks Oink and Kitty.
11 mins…
Good start to the week. I wondered whether there were two piggy references (Hog/Stye) – but I think the latter doesn’t have an “e”. Not often I wonder about a better way to have a clue, but perhaps 21ac “Perhaps Jack and Charlie on road, entertaining American” could drop the latter element and just say “Perhaps Jack and Charlie on a road”.
FOI – 8ac “Emotive”
LOI – 14ac “Hog”
COD – 19dn “Redden”
Thanks as usual!
I agree with your fine tuning, more concise and more natural surface.
Me too
Good to have a straightforward QC today after some of the recent tricky ones. Worked steadily through this with no problems. Lovely to be reminded of Imagine, especially at the current time. Thanks Oink and Kitty.
LOI HOG: didn’t immediately get the rather clever definition. Would have got it sooner had I checked the setter’s name first. Very enjoyable. 8:42.
Came here to say this
Nice start to the week, all done in 10.53. I also toyed with Trapped for CRAMPED when doing the acrosses, but as soon as I got to 21D, which clearly had to start with a C, it was easy enough to correct.
Thank you Litty for the blog.
I think I was still half asleep today. A largely straightforward QC but with twists leading to a high teens time for me (including an interruption I didn’t quantify). I was slow to fill the NW corner; for some reason, COPIER, WHINE and THREESOME took me too long (and I needed the crossers for SEAWATER) but all good clues.
However, RAN and PUBLISHED did not click as synonyms for my feeble noddle but I couldn’t think of an alternative.
Note added. I suppose an editor can run a story or publish a story but it seems a bit odd.
Thanks to both.
P.s. Once again, the grid is too big to fit on my iPad screen in landscape mode.
Oh I did Run sort of thought it was one of those France/Paris type articles = Un, how lax of me…
I was overthinking the QC today. I couldn’t work out the anagram for SEAWATER until all but one of the checkers was in play. I also tried to make an anagram of ‘System I’. I bunged in ‘trapped’ instead of CRAMPED and for some unknown reason the city of Paris didn’t appear on my list of French cities. From EXACT to SLIP in a tardy 8:40. Thanks Kitty
13:33 to complete this pretty straightforward puzzle. A gentle start to the week.
Nice one, thanks Oink and Kitty.
A gentle start to the week. From EMOTIVE to CARD in 6:08. Thanks Oink and Kitty.
8 minutes. No real troubles except for a careless initial EMOTION at 8a which was corrected by the crosser provided by our ovine friend at 4d. Talking of crossers, I might have had trouble with the only three-letter porcine clue, expected though it was, were it not for the H and G. I liked the IMAGINE double def.
Thanks to Kitty and Oink
Made slightly heavy weather of this not too difficult puzzle. LOsI SIDLE and SLIP.
I wondered what obscure French city it could be in 6d, then the penny dropped. Liked MERINO, when I saw it, and also IMAGINE, ROLLS, CARD, and WHINE, among others.
Thanks vm, Kitty.
All done in 13:54. Felt I was plodding along this morning, no idea why. I seem to be stuck with the horrid font for most puzzles now but I can’t keep blaming that.
Liked DECADENT.
Thanks Oink and Kitty
Now, that’s what I call a QC – sufficiently challenging in places (predominantly, the lower half of the grid), no obscure/archaic vocabulary, no esoteric GK, mostly straightforward wordplay and achievable over a cup of coffee by a non-expert like me.
I started with EXACT, held myself up a little by biffing EMOTIon at 8a, found HOG only by remembering the setter was Oink, had to alphabet trawl CRAMPED and finished with SIDLE. Time = 19 minutes, so a good day by my rather less than impressive standards.
Many thanks to Kitty and Oink.
Ah but you are an expert compared with anyone who is not an expert and can’t even start, as we all used to be!
Like Captain Burnaby, I failed to notice that Oink was responsible for this pleasantly gentle offering, otherwise my LOI would probably have fallen on the first pass -instead it was the only leftover after the second one.
FOI “EMOTION” which I corrected when I was savaged by a MERINO
LOI HOG
COD SIDLE
TIME 4:16
Straightforward start to the week. Cuppa still warm when I finished.
COD: CARD
Thanks Oink and Kitty
I see I am in good company being EMOTIONal initially. Friendly puzzle although my Monday brain dithered a bit in places, mainly the SE. SIDLE didn’t look right, don’t know why, but it parsed so in it went as LOI.
SEAWATER took longer than it should, especially as I can see vast quantities of it.
Hopefully the little grey cells will be more active tomorrow.
15.22 Shared EMOTION.. a lot about, and for us, far too long finding CITE. Alphabet trawl x 2 until the belated PDM.
MER from us re coper= manager. Are we the only ones? Not sure of a sentence in which I could convincingly swap between them.
A happy and enjoyable start to the week.
Many thanks to the Porcine one and to Kitty.
Now you mention it, I think I agree.
I can see ‘they managed/coped with the situation’ but ‘they were a good manager/coper’?
In my youth we used to refer to someone who wasn’t managing something very well as ‘a bit of a non-coper.’ I think it was a slang expression.
Hello : ) Yes – I, too recall that. I am just wondering if it is possible (in any context) to say, ‘a bit of a non -manager’? Usually with such clues, the words are interchangeable in at least one scenario.
‘He’ll cope, he’ll manage, he is or is not a coper…but a manager?’ Not convinced as yet… ?
12:17 today solving online for a change. The strangeness of the screen (very big) and not being able to scan the clues like you can on paper made it a slightly less enjoyable experience.
But I can only blame myself for EMOTION which meant the sheep held me up for quite a while until I found EMOTIVE.
Nice puzzle.
David
A relatively straightforward start to the week with a finishing time of 8.59. It would have been a good deal quicker if I didn’t have to correct all the incorrect biffs I’d accumulated in my quest for a quick time. I initially had EMOTION for 8ac, GERANIUM for 15dn and SLIP for 22dn. A question of more haste less speed in this instance.
Yes but slip is correct?
My guess is he put SPIL like I did, then noticed it is a misspelling.
Another slip! I actually originally put in TRIP.
10 in 20 minutes but finished with 22.
If I’d got whine I think the W would have led to seawater as I had it pegged as an anagram from the first pass.
I only got hog because I thought it was probably an Oink, but I didn’t get the homophone stye.
Yay, big improvement. Well done 👏
6.01 A very gentle Monday. Finished with EMIRATI. Thanks Kitty and Oink.
My thanks to Oink and Kitty.
Quite tricky I thought, pausing a while on 14a, Hog, then spotting the setter.
Gentle Monday morning solve in 15 minutes. It would have been quicker if I hadn’t been looking at the wrong end of 6dn for the definition.
FOI – 8ac EMOTIVE
LOI – 14ac HOG
COD – 11ac IMAGINE
Thanks to Oink and Kitty
11:54
A nice start to the week and a nicely pitched QC.
FOI: EXACT
LOI: CITE
COD: WHINE
Thanks to Oink and Kitty
07:19. Enjoyable solve as would expect from Oink. I loved the hidden MERINO.
I also had EMOTION for 8a which held up MERINO for some time.
But unlike Merlin I managed to cite SITE for 3D so a DNF on a very enjoyable QC.
Thanks to Kitty and Oink.
9:19, largely straightforward apart from a brief panic at MERINO before I remembered to look for a hidden.
Thank you for the blog!
11.02 except I put site and not cite 🙁
Not convinced a hog is a wild animal. Collins has it as specifically a domesticated pig.
Thanks Kitty and oink.
There are wild hogs, too: river hogs, forest hogs and warthogs are the ones that came to mind.
6:37 for the solve. No major holdups other than needing to write out ESCAPISM fodder which then got me to CARETAKER, KIDNAP and SIDLE (LOI). Some good surfaces in there, enjoyed it.
Thanks to Kitty and Oink
Agree this was on the gentle side. Held up for a while trying to work out an anagram of “System I” before spotting the hidden. Needed the crossers to get sidle.
FOI Exact
LOI Decadent
COD Emirati
Thanks Kitty and Oink
Quite slow this Monday morning (no change there), having enjoyed a glass or three too many at dinner last night. Loi 6d rather confirming my current inability to spot the obvious, in what was a very fair puzzle from Oink.
SCC looking quite empty at the moment.
CoD to Caretaker for the smile. Invariant
LOI: HOG.
Seems I am in good company there. I don’t understand the inclusion of ‘wild’ in the clue: a misdirection and I would have got there more quickly without it. Isn’t ‘hog’ just a synonym for ‘pig’, more usually applied to the domestic variety than the wild one? (OED definition “a pig, especially a castrated male reared for slaughter”)
42:56 which is personal best for me.
LOI: Ultimately useless and ineffectual creep
Congratulations! Onward and downward!
11:41 to finish and stumbled unaccountably all over this puzzle, hesitating over EMOTIVE, IMAGINE, THREESOME, HOG, I won’t go on, it’s too silly.
A very pleasing puzzle from Oink as usual. FOI a bungled EMOTIon, LOI CRAMPED (whyyyyyy?), COD to ESCAPISM.
Thanks Oink and Kitty.
This was a swift , neat and pleasant QC. Thanks Oink, Kitty and all.
6:57 here. As others have said, Paris wasn’t at the top of my brain’s “French cities for crosswords” list. Liked GARDENIA, a neat whole-word anagram.
Thanks to Kitty and Oink.
Like others, I put in EMOTION until the hidden sheep at 4d put me right. No probs with EMIRATI but a pause over DECADENT meaning in decline: I see it as rather more than that. Anyway it had to be. With this setter I looked for a place to insert RAM but the HOG was clear enough (and the other day I enjoyed some delicious hogget in London!) All done in 12 and many thanks to Oink and to Kitty
10 mins. Got every clue upon reading it. One of my best I think. Thanks Oink and Kitty
Ps don’t think that I can write any faster so perhaps have reached my terminal velocity
13:13 Not gonna whine over spilt oils..Nice puzzle and happy for Oink to hog the limelight.
Ta KAO
Never heard of pils or gardenia. Hate plants being answers, especially when there’s no obvious spelling. Rest was straightforward.
I did make a veiled reference to Verger = Janny = Janitor = CARETAKER a little while ago and here we are!
misseda few ‘words within words’ hog= corner?
His tactic was to corner/hog the market in a particular commodity.
A nice start to the week. Pitched about right for a Monday.